Loyd C. Sigmon Papers

Loyd C. Sigmon was born in Stigler, Oklahoma on May 6, 1909 to a cattle-ranching family. He went to school at Wentworth Military Academy and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He was interested in radio as a young man, and earned his his amateur radio license (W6LQ) at age 14. His broadcasting career began in 1932 at the Boston Short Wave and Television Laboratories. In 1941, he was hired as an engineer for MacMillan Petroleum Company's flagship radio station, KMPC, in Los Angeles, California.

During World War II, he served in the United States Army Signal Corps as Officer in charge of Communications for the Supreme Allied Command in Europe. He came up with the idea for the SigCircus, a mobile radio broadcasting unit on a fleet of 17 trucks which was able to send and receive messages simultaneously from Europe and the United States.

Sigmon resumed his job in Los Angeles after the war, and eventually became Executive Vice President at Gene Autry's Golden West Broadcasters. The company owned eight radio and two television stations on the west coast, including KMPC.

In 1955, Sigmon invented a specialized radio and tape recorder that the Los Angeles Police Department used to alert radio stations throughout the city to traffic conditions and emergencies. The messages were referred to as "Sigmon traffic alerts," a phrase quickly shortened to "SigAlert." While originally intended for any emergency or traffic situation, the system is now mainly used for traffic alerts.

Loyd Sigmon received recognition and honors from local and state government agencies, the National Safety Council, and broadcasting and radio organizations. He was a member of the University Board at Pepperdine University, and an office in the Center for Communication and Business is named after him. Sigmon died in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, on June 2, 2004.